November 3, 2010

Rush is raging this morning. Message: The GOP must be boldly conservative and not compromise.

ADDED: Emailed notes from the Rush organization, summarizing the first segment:

LOSERS compromise; Winners compromise nothing! ((Beach Music: Wipe Out)) ((More Music: Ding, Dong; the Witch is Dead.)) It is amusing how pessimism surrounds me. When Obama had the House and the Senate, that was a reason to be pessimistic, and I wasn’t.

Conservatism was not on the ballot in 2008. Now we see. 1994 was BIG because it was unexpected; the win last night was expected. Republicans hoped to pick up 17 and they picked up 60. Compromise is off the table; they didn’t want to compromise with us. Losers compromise; this Agenda has to be stopped!

60 seats in the House of Representatives is almost unprecedented.
The previous record was 55 seats in 1932 when Hoover was tossed.
((More oldie-but-goodie-music that Rush loves, this time with satire lyrics.))

And it’s bye, bye, Pelosi and Republican Boehner takes the gravel.

As long as the Democrats control the Senate, what better face than Dingy Harry to represent them. The country is asking, “How in the Heck can this happen, other than unions, fraud, and deceit?” Chuck-U Schumer is unhappy and mad-as-Hell that he doesn’t get the gravel. He and Dick Turbin were going to have a drag-out battle for it.

174 comments:

This is no time to compromise and pass $695 billion spendulus bills instead of $700 billion.

If the Republicans do this, in 2012, the next wave won't be a Republican wave, it will be a Tea Party wave.

With President Knucklehead still in office for two more years, gridlock is the best we can hope for. We can't hope to reverse the Democrats' stupidity, but we can arrest it. The economy will continue to muddle along with 1% annual gdp growth (which is actually per-capita contraction); and in 2012, the Democrats, who still control 2/3 of the government, will have ownership of 2/3 of that shit economy.

And speaking of the spendulus, the auto bailout, Obamacare, and all the other miracles and wonders brought to us by President Wonderful:

Was it AlphaLiberal, or garage mahal, or maybe Ritzy Brassiere who, a few weeks ago, was trumpeting the investment prowess of the Democrats, claiming that the government would actually make money on the GM bailout?

Truck driver, I get your point, but Republicans have never been Conservative. Oh, a few have, but most of them are just big government types who like power and corruption as much as any Democrat, they just have different "donors."

"Now we need our version of the Nancy Pelosis and Ellisons to come forth and throw everything into gridlock. Let's restart the abortion wars and denying homos not just marriage, but security clearances.Hopefully that will result in an economic Depression and make voters want to vote for Our Side all the more!Tea Party all the Way!And it means that not only Our Sarah can run for President, but our beloved Christine and Sharron are untainted by DC by losing the Senate races and are free to run alongside THe Goddess, should Sarah prefer to remain our voice in the media or falter in her own run against those Elitists!"

Tom Brokaw made some very interesting points last night, on NBC, in the 3 minutes I watched after getting home from kid schlepping.

Rand Paul says the Government doesn't create jobs. Brokaw: There are 22000 Federal jobs in Kentucky. (I wonder if that's the right number; if it is, I'm impressed that Brokaw could pull it out of the air like that) Darrell Issa says similar things, yet represents near-San Diego CA with its heavy military presence. Which of these jobs will those two target?

It'll be very interesting to see how the new Republicans coexist uneasily with the Old Guard in DC in the next two years.

Truck driver, I get your point, but Republicans have never been Conservative. Oh, a few have, but most of them are just big government types who like power and corruption as much as any Democrat, they just have different "donors."

The unifying issue that created this wave was Obamacare. Everyone knows what was in that bill. There is no reason why the Republican majority can not pass a repeal of it during their first week in power and dare Harry Reid and Obama to obstructed it being gotten rid of. If House Republicans can not do this simple act within the first week we need to start primary challenges of every damn one of them!

Seriously, there were two interesting events in the election. The 1st was voters were asked in several states which Party they were most disappointed in. 43% said Democrats, but 41% said Republicans. And both sides said their biggest beef was not taxes and deficits - but both Parties serving "The Elites". The Republicans were pinned by tax cuts for the wealthy, Wall Street bankers...thirst for more wars...and outsourcing jobs under Free Trade. The Democrats by serving their own special interests over The People.

The other was in Nevada, where the election turned on a "hold your nose and vote for the least worst candidate". Voters exiting polls that said they hated Harry Reid and everything he stood for nevertheless said they ended up voting for him because they had determined that Sharron Angle was simply unfit for office.

Lessons:

1. Voters echoed the news, obvious in how the Republican "Pledge" of tax cuts for the rich, liberating the Bankers, free trade & globalism, and special interest spending and commitment to war went over like a lead balloon - that Republicans are a damaged brand still on probation.

2. They think the Democrats blew it too, and voted anti-status quo to stop Obama-Reid-Pelosi "change they don't believe in".

3. The Tea Party might be viable as a 3rd Party - but not when all they can offer is unfit candidates like Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell.

As I first realized the other day, the Framers were opposed to standing armies as the biggest threat to liberty. As a born-again advocate of liberty and adhering to the original public meaning of the Constitution -- which opposed standing armies, and forbids funding them for more than two years -- it's time to defund the army.

No tax money shall go to the US Army after 2012. This will give them enough time to wind down in an orderly fashion, saving us billions and billions of dollars.

The Constitution explicitly permits a navy, and by implication Marine Corps. They will provide sufficient protection after 2012.

The remaining question is the constitutionality of the Air Force. Is it a navy floating through the air, instead of on the water, and thus permitted, or is it a cavalry of Pegasuses, and thus prohibited?

"They do? All 2000+ pages of it? I thought one of the chief complaints was that no one knew what they voted on!"

That's because (as a Democrat famously whined) it's stuffed with too much "statutory language". By design, because it could never stand the light of honest examination. Various groups have dissected it and have pinpointed various portions that will destroy choice and drive up costs. I could go dig up a link or you could load some paper in your printer and download the entire PDF if you're curious.

Having imbibed the spirit of the hour, I can say that I hope Boehner fails, and I will work to make sure he's a one-term Speaker.

That's actually a pretty astute comment.

Given the next two years of gridlock, the best outcome for the Republicans is not legislative. The best outcome is that some few of the newly promoted insurgents demonstrate real political ability. Both parties need a talent infusion. It is the Republicans now that have the deeper bench.

As a born-again advocate of liberty and adhering to the original public meaning of the Constitution -- which opposed standing armies, and forbids funding them for more than two years -- it's time to defund the army.

No tax money shall go to the US Army after 2012. This will give them enough time to wind down in an orderly fashion, saving us billions and billions of dollars.

The Constitution explicitly permits a navy, and by implication Marine Corps. They will provide sufficient protection after 2012.

The remaining question is the constitutionality of the Air Force. Is it a navy floating through the air, instead of on the water, and thus permitted, or is it a cavalry of Pegasuses, and thus prohibited?

Poor FLS, trying to be a constitutional originalist. The US Constitution doesn’t mandate an Army, but neither does it REQUIRE one. We MAY have one, we SHALL have a Navy. So why do we need to defund the US Army, by the Constitution, again? Please cite article and section. As to the Air Force, NOTHING would thrill me more than to see it disestablished, HOWEVER, even Volokh has argued that the US Constitution would allow for the USAF to exist, AS CURRENTLY WRITTEN. But as a sop to you new-found Originalists, we can reincorporate it into the US Army, as the US Army Air Forces, the title under which it gloriously contributed to the demise of Hitler, Tojo, and Mussolini.

IS this the best you’ve got…it’s about the equivalent of sticking your lip out and pouting.

Judi McLeod at the Canada Free Press notices that "something's not normal" with this president and his supporters.

The big problem the day before and after yesterday’s tsunami-like election is the ongoing media failure to confront the big reality: Something’s not normal.

It is not normal to have White House officials casually state that President Barack Obama was not watching election returns last night, particularly when those returns left him in a sort of `Home Alone` state.

Ad then there's that $200 million dollar a day vacation

“Something’s not normal” reeks particularly from the traveling circus of 3,000 people who will travel to Mumbai, India on Friday. Why do a president and his village-size traveling contingent need 40 aircraft?

She questions Obama's relationship to America and observes ...

Talking heads who keep reminding us that there were evil presidents before Obama are doing America a huge disservice. Bad as they were, none was depraved to the point that they flagrantly hated their own country and its people. When it comes to America, Obama acts as though he might have lost his marbles, yet no one is calling for the guys in the white coats.

It is not normal but sick to hate, let alone hate a country so many others look up to.

Then there's Nancy Pelosi doing a Baghdad Bob impression ...

It was not normal for Nancy Pelosi to keep denying reality after polls proved otherwise last night, claiming to that the Dems would get a majority.

What are these people on?

And the media? Even FOX comes in for fair criticism:

It is not normal for television networks to go on about the Tea Party losing “after spending all that money” but not go on about Harry Reid spending the family farm with the help of the Casino Boy’s big bucks in an Election where SEIU thugs manned the voting booths.

Is it normal that not one of these networks—FOX included—ever spoke on Election Night about election fraud, including the denial of America’s troops to cast their votes?

She's a Canadian so she can say it:

Why are they all so afraid to say it: There’s something seriously wrong with Barack Obama.

And until the day he’s no longer in the White House, there will be something seriously wrong with America.

In 2008 America made a big, big mistake. Infatuated with a clean, articulate young man, they were seduced into spending the night. When they woke up the next morning they were still infatuated, but as time went on the object of their affection showed that, no, he did not respect them in the morning. So here they are; taking their first step toward a divorce. Let's hope there are no children from that one-night stand.

Let us privatize air traffic control. Reagan fired all the controllers, so obviously ATC is a non-critical government service.

That’s a GREAT FLS, the Cato Institute has been proposing it for years. Now you’re thinking! The FAA needs to been severely pruned…why is there overcrowding at air ports, because there is no “Peak Time Pricing”…it costs as much to land at 8.00 AM as 4.30 AM…put in peak time pricing and watch the demand for air port slots even out…why so many delays, because if it’s raining between NYC and Detroit, you can only fly one way there and so the FAA “holds” flights, rather than allowing a diversion route….A Privatized Aviation System would be faster, more efficient and cheaper than the current one! Kudos to you FLS.

Compromise may actually be key to a Tea Party sweep in 2012, but it needs to be done right.

Don't compromise on the issues that swept you into office. Those are strictly economic issues and Obamacare.

But DO compromise elsewhere, especially on social issues where you can humiliate Obama and the Democrats by taking the initiative. Obama likes to pretend that his hands are tied on a lot of wedge issues like GLBT rights and the like. Offer compromises and watch them panic.

This is an opportunity to change the lines of battle in your favor. Don't lose it by being doctrinaire, nor by giving in on the few things you were sent there to do.

The only thing is I don't believe last night was a MANDATE for small government. Rather it was a mandate for stopping hyper liberalism and getting back to Dubya style big government. Let's face it, too many people have their hand in the public trough!

Here's the thing about translations, you must take the text from one language and say what it says in another language while keeping the spirit. Imbuing it with your own meaning is not translation. But you already know that.

Something's not normal with Judi McLeod, apparently. She cowrote and published an article concluding that the Mafia either knew about, or actively participated in the 9/11 massacre. Another article linked the Spanish language network Telemundo ultimately to "Swiss Jews, a California Jew, and an Irish-Canadian manager."

How about a tax increase for the middle class? I'm serious. Specifically a tax for those who currently are paying no federal taxes. It doesn't have to be excessive, maybe 10%. Considering though they are the ones using all those services primarily they should pay their fair share. Will it suck for them? Maybe, but they're the ones talking about how taxes need to be raised on the rich guys. Why not them too? My guess is after a year of that they will be tea partiers talking about high taxes. But the problem is they expect something for nothing. ALl these services are free. If they have skin in the game they may realize that they'd rather keep the money they made then take advantage of a lousy govt service. Or that the govt service is not worth their money after all.

Meh, this is the kind of attitude that leads to massive overreach and then a fierce return swing of the pendulum.

Besides, the Democrats still have the Senate and the WH. What, are the House Republicans somehow going to get their way without compromise? Limbaugh needs to remember that this now November 3rd, not November 1st.

How about a tax increase for the middle class? I'm serious. Specifically a tax for those who currently are paying no federal taxes. It doesn't have to be excessive, maybe 10%. Considering though they are the ones using all those services primarily they should pay their fair share.

Huh? The middle class isn't paying federal income tax and is using all those government services?

How about that computer you're typing on? Care to go back to paying 1980-90's prices for it?

Reminds of how people would lament when Wal Mart rolled in and destroyed the 'Mom and Pop' hardward store. I know I was really broken up when I could no longer spend as much as the Pentagon would on a hammer.

From previous experience, I'll say Truck Driving Man is a moby, so my advice is not to take the bait.

Don't rise to the bait, but do keep pointing out that he (and others) is not legit when he makes absurd statements. We all know how much certain people would love to seize anything in the comments and try to use it to tar all Althousians.

What company would take on the responsibility and the potential liability from the inevitable accident? If Congress would make them un-sueable for that kind of thing, it might work, but I don't see both Houses passing such a bill.

How about that computer you're typing on? Care to go back to paying 1980-90's prices for it?

Meaningless. You couldn't buy it in the 1980s. Going back to paying an equivalent would probably be accompanied by an increase in the build quality, so while it's not a trade most people would opt for, I'd point out that we hit "as much computer as most people need" about 10 years ago.

I know I was really broken up when I could no longer spend as much as the Pentagon would on a hammer.

Who buys tools at Walmart?

A number of hardware stores closed here after Home Depots moved in. But Home Depot is so annoying to use that two new Ace Hardwares opened up. I find that many things I need to keep the house going are either out of stock or higher priced at my nearby Home Depot, so I will drive past it to go to an Ace.

A number of hardware stores closed here after Home Depots moved in. But Home Depot is so annoying to use that two new Ace Hardwares opened up. I find that many things I need to keep the house going are either out of stock or higher priced at my nearby Home Depot, so I will drive past it to go to an Ace.

WOW, so that whole “market” thing works, eh? Who could of seen THAT coming? Too bad it won’t work for the provision of health care or air traffic control or many other vital services.

A number of hardware stores closed here after Home Depots moved in. But Home Depot is so annoying to use that two new Ace Hardwares opened up. I find that many things I need to keep the house going are either out of stock or higher priced at my nearby Home Depot, so I will drive past it to go to an Ace.

FLS brings up an interesting point by recalling the firing of air traffic controllers. We will remember that the atc people decided they were indispensable to safe air travel and decided to stick it to us, their employer, in the form of higher wages, etc. Their skills could not be duplicated, they argued, their stress levels had no compare. Pay up or we go on strike, they said. Ronnie said, go ahead and I will fire every last one of you. They did and he did. Air travel was "disrupted" by a few hours the first couple of days after the new guys went to work. Thereafter no problems.

When you get a bully down on the ground and your knees are pinning his biceps and your fists are pounding his nose and cheeks you will often hear the bully call urgently for truce, for a chance to get his breath, for anything to get you to stop beating the shit out of him. Do not stop. Make the bully spit some teeth. Make his eyes show the fear that strikes the moment he recognizes you are not going to stop, that you won't stop until you know he will never bully anybody again. Ever.

NEXT: Soc. Sec. retirement age for those 50 and older re-pegged at 70 and indexed to the mean life expectancy thereafter.

AFTER THAT: ObamaCare entirely defunded, then repealed. Eliminate tax advantages for businesses offering health coverage for employees, and simultaneously offer tax credits for individuals buying their own, so that it becomes an individual market.

NEXT: re-set business income taxes in the following way:

-Calculate business income percentile (that is, the percent of all businesses with a lower income than yours)

-Calculate market-value percentile (that is, the percent of all businesses with a lower market value than yours)

-Add the two percentiles (each is a number from 0% to 99.9%, so the result is a number ranging from 0 to just about 200)

-Divide by seven

-Round to nearest integer

-That's how much tax you pay on business income.

As a result, any corporation big enough to buy congresspersons pays higher tax rates, and if a firm is the biggest AND has the biggest income, it pays 28% (beneficially less than the current 35%). But the tiniest entrepreneurial start-ups, barely avoiding a loss, pay 0%. Those in the middle pay around 14%. This helps all businesses, but promotes entrepreneurship most.

AND AFTER THAT? Fed rates approaching real inflation would be nice, so long as one didn't modify them abruptly but allowed economic expansion to "catch us up" in a gradual way.

The President of the Court St Merchants has an Ace hardware store that has been there for sixty years. We have a Home Depot and a Lowes within twenty blocks. He stays open and flourishes because he offers personal services such as locksmith and other services as well as being able to answer questions from his customers.

Also Javier Hardware has stayed open on Smith St as well offering that service to the Spanish community.

Dood/doodette I think the market suggests you’re flat-out wrong on this…but thank you for contributing.

You think wrong. PC sales have been on a decline for the past 10 years or so, with last year being especially bad.

I'm not even disagreeing with your main point, just saying you picked a bad example with personal computers. They've pretty much always been built overseas (the original Apple ][ maybe not), and the drop in price has more to do with advances in technology that are fairly independent of whether or not they're built overseas.

I'm not sure why you should find this a subject to hyperventilate about. Have all the machine you want, Joe.

Of course there is a lot of business here in Brownstone Brooklyn. In a smaller community where everyone drives a big Walmart or Costco or something would be a magnet for many miles around and if there is only so much business to go around.

My point is, it’s no one’s business to determine what I “need” but me… And PC’s may have been declining in sales, but that would most likely be because lap-tops and comparable systems, offering near PC or greater than PC capacity are available. So that people have found a “need” for greater power, speed AND portability….

My point is, it’s no one’s business to determine what I “need” but me…

I think your point is it's not the government's business.

It is, of course, lots of other peoples' literal business to determine what you need, what you want, and what you'll pay for.

This is what powers the sub-PC market: The fact that most people don't need the maximum amount of computing power, so they'll trade that off for a smaller footprint--or as the iPad shows, for a drastically limited machine that is portable in a way that makes laptops seem clunky.

When you get down to it, most people don't need or even want a computer at all; it's just that that was the only way to get to what they do want, which is pretty much: the Internet.

Dude, how old are you? The Macintosh was introduced Jan 24, 1984. D'oh!

In 88 I paid almost $8k for an Mac IIx with 128 mb of RAM and a bit south of $90k for a IBM 36, two TI printers and four terminals to run a parts warehouse. I could do it with $2-3k worth of equipment nowadays or, hell I could prolly do run it on a Blackberry...which leads me to this.

My dad bought me an Apple ][+ in '79. Cost was $2,500. (About $10K, today? Thanks, Dad!) We actually beefed it up with another $2,500 worth of musical components. Got so hot--fanless, you may recall--I used to keep the lid off.

And ever since then, I've been struggling with getting enough computer power, enough memory, enough storage. (OK, not so much when I worked on 360/370/390s, but then it was worrying about paying for it.)

Though with a good 5-6TBs to my name, these days my storage issues are largely relegated to my DVR.

But, really, computer prices come down mainly because the technology advances quickly, not because of manufacturing processes or cheap labor. The PC business was used to people turning over machines quickly, and that just drastically slowed down when machines got fast enough and Windows got stable enough.

Which is why they're scrambling with netbooks/tablets/phones/whatever: They want to keep the sales going and the cheapness of more power is so much less than the allure of portable/cute/cool.

edutcher said...Compromise is RINO for Go Along To Get Along. So don't do it. It's what got the Rs in this mess and it's always what the Demos mean when they talk about civility and bipartisanship.

And, for once, I agree with Alex. We'll need another purge of the RINOs in '12. Lessee, who's up then?

The Weird Sisters of Maine (at least one)?

==================

Which democrats do you want to select to join the Senate insteal of Snowe and Collins? Do you want Coakley next election to purge traitor impure apostate Scott Brown as a lousy RINO because "better a DEmocrat than a moderate Republican until Massachusetts votes like rural white Georgians???"

Lindsay Graham is a good primary target because is out of step with voters in S Carolina. Not so the Maine ladies or Scott Brown with voters in their states.

Pretending Delaware was a Christian megachurch and that Nevada loves crazy ladies of impeccable ideological purity cost Republicans two Senate seats that should have been a lock...sending Harry Reid and his "pet" Coons to the Senate for 6 years.

But that's cool, right ED? Because sending Coons and Reid to the Senate "sends a real message!!" by your understanding..

C-4, why blame O’Donell or Angle? THEY WON THEIR PRIMARIES. Their Republican challengers, COULD HAVE been different, run different campaigns, they didn’t. They didn’t meet the market requirements, and in the case of Castle, in DE, what would the GOP have gained except one more vote for McConnell as Majority Floor Leader? The reality is that the Establishment GOP blew it in 2006 and 2010…not seeing what was required of it. In their stead new contenders emerged.

And it sent a message, “The GOP rank and file expect a little more from the GOP than you gave us this year.”

I regard Limbaugh's trumpeting as morning-after hyperbole. We should all know that the Republicans will (and probably should) compromise on some things. That's the way useful things can get done in politics. On the other hand, they don't have to compromise on everything, most especially on the important things, because they've been put into office with the absolute promise that they will be swept out if they cave and screw it all up. The American people are in no mood for weakness.

We should all know that the Republicans will (and probably should) compromise on some things.

The GOP has a rep for compromising their compromises. They call for war and then settle for a harshly worded UN resolution. So I prefer that this crop errs on the side of stubborn refusal to work with the socialist Dems.

Slightly off-topic, but the above conversation about Home Depot induced me to post this:

When Home Depot came to town, everyone predicted the local Ace Hardware and the local specialty plumbing store, etc would go out of business. They haven't. In fact, they have flourished, even though a LOT of people shop at the Home Depot.

Why did they flourish? Classic market strategy. There should be a case on this in the HBR.

Ace Hardware, which had always focused on customer service - started doing that EVEN better. Even though their stuff costs a little more, people in the neighbourhood kept going there because if you're a DIYer, the local Ace guys give you amazing advice, and sometimes even help you think through your projects.

The plumbing and piping specialty store did something different. Instead of rolling over for Home Depot, they started stocking a wider inventory of plumbing, piping and related products. And they helped their customers with knowhow as well, but primarily, they flourished because they stocked stuff that Home Depot doesn't.

So everytime someone tells me that big box stores destroy Mom and Pop stores - this is what I tell them: The big box stores are good at streamlining the supply chain, and they get huge economies of scale. The Mom and Pop stores fail when they try to compete on price. That is EXACTLY the wrong way to compete with a big box store. You can NEVER beat them at the price game.

Instead, do what they CAN'T do - get to know your customers like they are your family, add value to them beyond being just a store where one can buy stuff, stock hard to find but essential products. Its not easy, but there are VERY clear niches in the business ecosystem for Mom and Pop stores.

and the drop in price has more to do with advances in technology that are fairly independent of whether or not they're built overseas.

The cost drivers are interesting. Intel has led the development of CPUs, with AMD trailing far behind. The price drops come from raising yields and using bigger diameter wafers.

Memory is cheap because the nation of South Korea invested heavily in South Korean memory chip makers, following an industrial policy dating back to investments in shipyards and steelmills. Next up is clean energy.

Ancillary chips are cheap because the governments of Taiwan and Singapore decided to invest heavily in the establishment of semiconductor foundries that can process ever larger wafers. Apart from Intel, only nations have enough investment capital to establish such new fabs.

Expertise in high speed motherboard layout has mostly shifted to Taiwan.

I guess it depends on what you mean by compromise. I do think people expect some results in terms of debt reduction and an improved economy...they might not like it too much if all the new guys do is say we won over and over. That does not mean they have to sacrifice their principles, but it is also childish to just posture. Rush can say what he likes, no one elected him, he is not accountable to anyone but his audience.

Besides, if some of the true conservatives out there like Rush had not insisted on Angle and O'Donnell as candidates, the GOP would have two more Senators. So he is not always right about everything.

Macs were built in Fremont, California from 82 to 92, when production was shifted to a factory in Elk Grove (Sacramento). The Sacramento factory was closed in 2004.

They were assembled there, sure. We still do some assembly here in the states (as I said, I get mine from a local garage). But I'm pretty sure the parts have always come from all over. If not for some American machines, like Apple and IBM, then for the clones that made up the majority of the market shortly after the 1981 introduction of the PC.

The demand for compromise by Democrats is laughable. They have done nothing except remind Republicans that they had won in '06 and '08. Compromise always seems to be for those on the right to give in to those on the left. The lapdog media will always support Democrats and lefties and will always call for their opponents to compromise while telling their favorites to stand firm on principle.

Nonetheless, I think the new House majority should always be ready to listen to lefty aristocracy and be willing to compromise on matters of procedure. They must never be willing to compromise on matters of principle. Whenever the Democrats show the slightest effort to actually compromise on something then we can begin to restore "civility" to the political process. Until the Democrats stop demanding Republicans compromise their principles, they are all Alan Grayson. As are their media lapdogs.

As long as the Democrats control the Senate, what better face than Dingy Harry to represent them. The country is asking, “How in the Heck can this happen, other than unions, fraud, and deceit?” I certainly am asking that.

Did he really say that Schumer wants to "get the gravel?"

Re: compromise, the Rs ought to make public offers and let Obama be the one to turn them down. Let him be the obstructionist.

edutcher said...Compromise is RINO for Go Along To Get Along. So don't do it. It's what got the Rs in this mess and it's always what the Demos mean when they talk about civility and bipartisanship.

And, for once, I agree with Alex. We'll need another purge of the RINOs in '12. Lessee, who's up then?

The Weird Sisters of Maine (at least one)?

==================

Which democrats do you want to select to join the Senate insteal of Snowe and Collins? Do you want Coakley next election to purge traitor impure apostate Scott Brown as a lousy RINO because "better a DEmocrat than a moderate Republican until Massachusetts votes like rural white Georgians???"

Lindsay Graham is a good primary target because is out of step with voters in S Carolina. Not so the Maine ladies or Scott Brown with voters in their states.

Pretending Delaware was a Christian megachurch and that Nevada loves crazy ladies of impeccable ideological purity cost Republicans two Senate seats that should have been a lock...sending Harry Reid and his "pet" Coons to the Senate for 6 years.

But that's cool, right ED? Because sending Coons and Reid to the Senate "sends a real message!!" by your understanding..

Right???

Cedar is foaming at the mouth, so I can only say that, over the years, most Conservatives have learned the hard way that RINOs can't be trusted - witness the conduct of Crist, Murkowski, and Castle. Just as Snowe "heard the call of history", the others will as well, because RINOs are Go Along To Get Along.

Since the Maine state house (both chambers) and governor went Republican last night, Snowe, the Weird Sister from Maine, is a good target.

Get rid of them. As has been noted, when RINOs have beaten a Conservative in the primaries, the Conservative did what the Party asked; not so when the shoe is on the other foot. If Brown votes well, keep him; if not, find someone else and let the RINOs find a new home across the aisle where they belong. A vote that can't be trusted (the name Specter ring a bell?) is no damned good.

Dude, how old are you? The Macintosh was introduced Jan 24, 1984. D'oh!

In 88 I paid almost $8k for an Mac IIx with 128 mb of RAM and a bit south of $90k for a IBM 36, two TI printers and four terminals to run a parts warehouse. I could do it with $2-3k worth of equipment nowadays or, hell I could prolly do run it on a Blackberry...which leads me to this.

11/3/10 2:11 PM "

S/36 damn! I paid $250,000 back in the day for mine including the whopping 1.2 MEG external tape drive. It was one hell of a work horse. Ran that thing 24/7 for 14 years except for the once a week IPL. Green screens, nothing pretty about it but it was absolutely reliable. Not one crash (other than caused by a power failure, cured with a monstrous battery pack UPS) in all of those years. Replace it with an AS/400 which is just as remarkable in it's reliability plus the fact that so far it's bullet proof in terms of viruses and malware (not for nothing the federal reserve banks run on them).

But, really, computer prices come down mainly because the technology advances quickly, not because of manufacturing processes or cheap labor.

The main reason computer related manufacturing went offshore was because we chose a cleaner environment. Silicon Valley has 29 Superfund Toxic sites- the most concentrated number of Superfund sites in America.

Actually one of the largest sites, Farichild Semiconductor in Mountain View, is home to the Shoreline Amphitheatre and since the early 90's a number of tech companies, including GooglePlex, has produced thousands of higher paying jobs than the semiconductor plant.

The main reason computer related manufacturing went offshore was because we chose a cleaner environment.

No, Intel is still building fabs in the US. They took the precaustion to dump their solvents into doublewalled, above ground tanks with leak detection between the two walls.

The majority of the Silicon Valley Superfund sites were caused by organic solvents, chiefly tricholorethene, that leaked into the ground from underground storage tanks or piping. In other cases, the organics were deliberately dumped on the ground. Some of the Superfund sites are old technology, like the PCBs from the Westinghouse transformer company, or the plating shop chemicals from TRW Microwave.

Fen;Look at it from the angle of RINO incumbents voting the next 2 years with the awareness they are under the Tea Party gun.

In 2003 both Dems and Repubs voted in the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit in a beautifully bipartisan but unfortunately very expensive legislation. Among those voting for the bill we those well known RINO's as:-Jim Bunning (he of the "hell no I won't go along with raising the debt ceiling")-Thad Cochran- Chuck Grassley- James Inhofe- Jon Kyl- Rick Santorium-Jeff Sessions

So if to earn the label of RINO one must spend too much and create unecessary bureaucracy then we've got plenty of more purgin' to do

----Let us privatize air traffic control. Reagan fired all the controllers, so obviously ATC is a non-critical government service.---

Oh, FLS, that's crazy talk!!!!!!!!!

....experts (including four former FAA administrators) agree that safety regulation can and should be organizationally separate from ATC operations -- removing the inherent conflict of interest in our current system. Second, because ATC is purely operational, its mission is clear and its performance is measurable. And third, ATC's customers -- airlines and private planes -- are identifiable, and most of the benefits of ATC accrue directly to those who pay the costs.

Because of these three basic characteristics, 29 countries -- including Canada, the U.K., Germany and Australia -- have shifted to autonomous, not-for-profit air traffic organizations outside the traditional government bureaucracy that are funded directly by their users and able to borrow in the capital markets. A half-dozen major studies and task forces have endorsed similar ideas for the U.S.' ATC system during the past decade. And two years ago, a dozen retired FAA officials signed a public statement calling for this kind of reform.

http://reason.org/news/show/122572.html

We have a lot of unemployed Democratic congressmen, they would jump at this chance.

Actually, that's not a valid translation -- I'm sorry, I had my Starfleet universal translation device set on 'Antisemite Fucktard to English', and I should have had it set on 'Antisemite Paranoid Fucktard with Delusions of Grandeur to English'.

Here's a better translation:

"My own self-loathing causes me to lash out at Jews, Blacks, women, homosexuals, and Rotarians in an irrational and remarkably verbose way; and this self-loathing stems, ultimately, from having a small, deformed pecker, the result of a botched circumcision. I hate Jews because they have neat, clean, professionally circumcised Johnsons; I hate Blacks because their peckers are so large and shiney; I despise women and homosexuals because they've both rejected me sexually; and as for Rotarians...this leads me to such dark places in my subconscious that I can't even explain this myself."

If this new crew starts down the compromise path, then it's a loser. Democrats will try to honeypot these guys and they need to be savvy enough to go tell them to fuck off. They need to bury the Democrats into the earth and send them a clear and unequivocal message that their leftard ideology has zero place in this country anymore. That's the only way to fight this scourge.